- Nov 2, 2009
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The lead lawyer for celebrated death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal has quit the case days before a key appeals court hearing, amid a rift with his famous client over strategy.
Lawyer Robert R. Bryan stepped down after Abu-Jamal asked him to sit silent in court while another lawyer argues that jury instructions in his 1982 trial were flawed.
At Abu-Jamal's insistence, Widener University law professor Judith L. Ritter will now argue the issue.
Abu-Jamal, 56, has had about 10 lawyers represent him since his 1981 arrest, and another dozen or two work on his behalf through advocacy groups.
Bryan had taken over the case seven years ago and pushed to overturn both his client's death sentence and conviction in the 1981 slaying of a Philadelphia police officer.
"He and I had a very basic disagreement about this argument tomorrow," Bryan said Monday. "It finally got to the point where I just felt like, ethically, I was totally compromised."
...
http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/other/1110/11-08-2010/20101108125000_24.html
Lawyer Robert R. Bryan stepped down after Abu-Jamal asked him to sit silent in court while another lawyer argues that jury instructions in his 1982 trial were flawed.
At Abu-Jamal's insistence, Widener University law professor Judith L. Ritter will now argue the issue.
Abu-Jamal, 56, has had about 10 lawyers represent him since his 1981 arrest, and another dozen or two work on his behalf through advocacy groups.
Bryan had taken over the case seven years ago and pushed to overturn both his client's death sentence and conviction in the 1981 slaying of a Philadelphia police officer.
"He and I had a very basic disagreement about this argument tomorrow," Bryan said Monday. "It finally got to the point where I just felt like, ethically, I was totally compromised."
...
http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/other/1110/11-08-2010/20101108125000_24.html